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Belabored Podcast #42: (Almost) Striking in Portland  

In news: United Auto Workers’ defeat in Chattanooga, Tennessee, port truckers and wage theft, minor league ballplayers suing over wage violations, the U.S. government’s reliance on sweatshops, the strike by University of Illinois faculty, and why the Congressional Budget Office is wrong about the minimum wage. And Portland teacher Elizabeth Thiel on militant teacher unionism in Oregon.







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On Stuart Hall (1932–2014)  

As Stuart Hall told the story, the New Left began in 1956. In the course of a few early November days, British, French, and Israeli forces responded to Nasser’s closing of the Suez Canal by bombing Cairo and invading Egypt …



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Belabored Podcast #41: Can Postal Banking Deliver Us from Wall Street? With Dave Dayen  

Could banking at the post office be a boon to low-income communities and a major challenge to Wall Street? Sarah and Michelle discuss with Dave Dayen. Plus the latest news on teachers and nurses organizing for workplace rights, how Wal-Mart’s anti-labor actions may be undermining its bottom line, a legal victory for immigrant guestworkers, and the crowdsourced sweatshop.







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Belabored Podcast #40: Philanthrocapitalism, with Joanne Barkan  

Joanne Barkan has spent years researching and writing about the ideology of billionaire ed reformers. She joins Michelle and Sarah to talk about her work. And in labor news, London’s public transit workers go on strike; Tennessee may yet see a unionized auto plant; NFL cheerleaders rise up against wage theft; and workers rise up against the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.





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The Unwelcome Arrival of the Quenelle  

The scene is the Zenith de Paris theatre, December 2008. French comedian Dieudonné M’bala M’bala is on stage, describing to his audience the genesis of the sketch they are about to watch. It is a response, he explains, to a …



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Belabored Podcast #38: Caring for America, with Eileen Boris and Jennifer Klein  

This week, the Supreme Court heard arguments in Harris v. Quinn, a case that could break public-sector unions around the country. Sarah and Michelle talk to Eileen Boris and Jennifer Klein, the authors of Caring for America: Home Health Workers in the Shadow of the Welfare State, about the case, the formation of home care workers’ unions, and the potential ramifications for all public sector workers.



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Are Mexico’s Armed Civilians “Vigilantes”?  

Self-defense groups have emerged throughout Mexico in recent years. In the last week, they acquired a prominent role in the south of the state of Michoacán, where they have fought drug-trafficking gunmen out of towns in which they used to …